Top Ten South Florida Sports Moments of 2014

Let's face it. 2014 was a big heaping pile of crap of a sports year for us down here. The Heat got destroyed in the Finals, which led to LeBron James' leaving for Cleveland. The Dolphins still suck. The Marlins missed the playoffs and lost their star player for the season when he got beaned in the face. And the Miami Hurricanes are a disgrace.

And yet, even with all the misery and heartache, 2014 still managed to produce some pretty spectacularly memorable moments in sports.

So no, there hasn't been much to cheer for this year, but enough happened to remind us that sports is fun and that the future is indeed bright -- at least in some places.

So as we say goodbye to a horrible sports year, let's revisit the Top Ten moments one last time and be reminded that it's not as bad as it seems:

10. The U Part 2

The University of Miami Hurricanes football program is in a shambles, what with Al Golden stinking up the joint and the powers that be inexplicably not firing him despite back-to-back embarrassingly bad losing seasons. But the one saving grace for the U lately has been looking back at its past glories, and no one has done that better than documentarian Billy Corben. His seminal doc

The U

was met with rave reviews. And the sequel,

The U Part 2

, which was released earlier this month, was just as good. Revisiting past glories is pretty much the only thing Canes fans have left. Thank goodness for Billy Corben.

9. Dan Marino Returns His Awesomeness to the Dolphins

All-time greatest Dolphin and Hall of Famer Dan Marino retires in 1999, and the team promptly goes directly into the shitter, never to return to its past glories ever again. Coincidence? Shit and no. Marino

is

the Miami Dolphins, and Stephen Ross' hiring him this year to take on an adviser role is the only good thing the owner has done for this team. Now the Right of Arm of God is roaming the hallways making sure shit gets fixed and promptly. And is it also a coincidence that Ryan Tannehill

No. Not a coincidence. The Dolphins still have a long way to go before they're any good again. But having the legend of Marino in the fold is a step in the right direction on a franchise filled with losers and dolts.

8. Ryan Tannehill's Emergence as The Guy We've Been Waiting for All These Years

The Dolphins are filled with suck. And they've sucked for so long, people forgot what it's like to cheer for a relevant football team in South Florida. One of the main reasons for this has been because the team has gone through 13 quarterbacks since 1999, and all of them were pretty terrible. But suddenly, there's hope. In his third year as the starter, Ryan Tannehill has emerged as a fine quarterback with a bright future. While the rest of the Fins were ass this season, Tannehill managed to set franchise records and hit the 4,000-yard mark -- the first time a Dolphin QB has done that since Marino was at the helm. Playing behind a shoddy offensive line, with mediocre receivers, Tannehill managed to turn a lot of the Suck into some magic, giving Dolphins fans everywhere something they haven't felt in more than two decades: HOPE.

for a single game when he dropped 61 points on the Charlotte Bobcats. The record had been held for 19 years by Heat all-timer Glen Rice. But LeBron, being the best basketball player in the world and all, obliterated the record and established himself as one of the most efficient players the NBA has ever seen. On this night, James shot an insane 66.7 percent from the floor, throwing down eight consecutive three-pointers at one point. It was one of the most magnificent single-player performances the Heat has ever seen.